Samuel Rodrigues
Samuel “Jetstream Sam” Rodrigues, also known as the Minuano, is a cyborg swordsman that joined Senator Steven Armstrong and the secondary antagonist of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. History Past Sam’s father was the owner of a Kenjutsu dojo in Brazil, their family having a long line of swordsmen. He taught the Uradachi technique, which thought of violence as the final goal. Sam’s father was finally killed by one of his students, apparently under orders from a drug cartel. Sam inherited his father’s sword and left Brazil, eventually making one last trip back to slay his father’s killer, before he left forever. Sam became a wandering mercenary, taking whatever work he could, and made a name for himself in the criminal underworld. There was even one story that said he took down a squad of 10 armed mob hit men using only his sword. Sam eventually got himself a cyborg-esque suit to enhance his already impressive abilities and had his sword, the Murasama blade, modified into a high-frequency blade. Taking on World Marshall Eventually Sam learned of senator Steven Armstrong’s ties with the World Marshal PMC and set out to take him down for just letting soldiers die while taking no personal risk to himself. However Armstrong and Monsoon, one of the senator’s minions, had arranged for Sam to come to Denver, hoping to recruit him. Sam infiltrated World Marshal’s headquarters through the sewer systems, in the process, running into the LG-84i prototype (or Blade Wolf). It said it had been ordered to kill him, but Sam replied it should make its own choices. Bladewolf thought about that for a moment, but responded that it couldn’t disobey direct orders or its memory would be wiped, before engaging Sam. He managed to defeat it, saying that Bladewolf hadn’t done badly, but he’d won because he chose to fight. Sam entered World Marshal headquarters, where he continued to fight his way through the cyborgs. He finally reached a hangar like area where Monsoon showed up, who mentioned his taking on an entire drug cartel, but said it would’ve been pointless. Sam just said he’d only been out for revenge, which he’d gotten and Monsoon said they should see what he had now. He dropped a red phosphorous grenade down to generate a large cloud of smoke, disappearing as a Metal Gear RAY came out to fight Sam. He managed to take it down, only to be called by Armstrong, who said he’d done well, but he needed to come to the top floor to finish things. Sam managed to fight his way up to the rooftop, where he faced Armstrong himself, who thanked him for coming. He asked the senator what his game was and he replied it was Sam’s final interview. Armstrong absorbed the nanomachines from various vehicles around the building, powering up, and the two engaged each other. Sam managed to apparently defeat Armstrong, who asked him to join his cause, so as to end war as a business. Sam admitted that perhaps he’d misjudged the senator and Armstrong asked him to lend them a hand. Sam asked why didn’t he just take his and attacked the senator again, finally cutting his hand off. However, Armstrong used the pointed, metallic stump to impale Sam’s right arm, badly damaging it. The senator again asked Sam to join him and he agreed. Afterwards, his right arm was replaced with a cybernetic replacement and Sam began performing missions for his new master, alongside the restored Bladewolf. Meetings with Raiden Eventually, Sam and Desperado launched an ambush on the convoy transporting N’mani, an African prime minister. Sam easily cut through the lead vehicles and Maverick soldiers, though the prime minister’s limousine got away from him. However N’mani was captured by Sundowner and Sam met him on a train. Raiden eventually caught up with them and tried to stop Sundowner from harming N’mani, but Sam stopped him. Sundowner left Sam to Raiden and the cool Brazilian wind managed to take him on easily, noting that his skills were self-taught and not half-bad. Sam managed to slash out Raiden’s left eye, then said that he was denying the true purpose of his sword and its desire to kill and bath in the blood of his enemies. Raiden replied his sword was a tool of justice, but Sam dismissed his claims and ferociously attacked him, eventually severing his left arm. Sam said that was what happened when you brought a tool to a sword fight and prepared to finish him off. But he realized Raiden had delayed long enough for the train to emerge from the tunnel and had to retreat from the Maverick reinforcements. Some time afterwards, Sam appeared to Raiden on several holographic billboards as he approached World Marshall headquarters. Sam questioned Raiden’s pursuit of justice, pointing out that the cyborgs he’d been killing were still people. Raiden said they’d chosen their path, but Sam pointed out they had come from desperate situations, which had forced them to join PMCs. Sam told him to turn off his suppressive nanomachines and listen. Raiden suddenly heard the thoughts of the cyborgs he was fighting, realizing for himself that things were not as black and white as he’d believed. As Raiden approached World Marshal headquarters, in a confused haze, Sam came out to face him, asking if his cause was just or if that was “just” what he told himself. Monsoon appeared and started lecturing Raiden on his illusions of righteousness as Sam looked on. As Raiden took on his “Jack the Ripper” persona, Sam was interested in fighting him, but Monsoon told him to report back to their chief. Final Duel As Raiden headed towards Solis, trying to stop Operation Tecumseh, Sam showed up to face him one last time, waiting for him with Bladewolf. Raiden said for a hired killer, Sam wasn’t very good at his job, but he said the war was the big payoff. Raiden replied that there’d be big raises all around when World Marshal got all those contracts, but Sam said he was talking about ideals, not money. He went on to say that they’d both heard enough talk about higher causes and that history would decide who’s right. As they prepared to fight each other, Raiden said he didn’t care who thought he was right and Sam said that was very good, before the two fought. Finally, Raiden emerged victorious, stabbing Sam through the stomach. He fell dead, but beforehand, he’d told Bladewolf that Raiden had made him start to doubt his choice to aid Armstrong’s plan. Depending on the outcome of the duel, he would either continue with the plan or he’d leave his sword to Bladewolf, who could do with it as he wished. The blade would eventually be given to Raiden during his final duel with Armstrong. Personality Sam honed his skills to become a great swordsman based on his own ideals of justice and was once greatly motivated by revenge against the people who killed his father. Taking out drug cartels and other sources of corruption, Sam developed a free-wheeling yet honourable personality revolved around his own pursuit of justice outside of legality and morality by adopting criminality to further dispense these ideals on other criminals. Since his employment into Desperado, Sam adopted a taunting and manipulative persona that Blade Wold deemed as "unusual". Although he was greatly outspoken against Armstrong and his use of child soldiers, Sam's defeat against Armstrong crushed his spirit and was forced to join Desperado anyway. Monsoon's words that corruption was a larger entity and could not be destroyed piece by piece, Sam's actions, despite having destroyed numerous of cartel gangs would ultimately amount to nothing and his defeat at the hands of Armstrong only solidified this, rendering his ideals of justice essentially moot. Having lost his original reason to fight, Sam became a warrior without a cause and joining Desperado inevitably gave him more reasons to seek out conflict but secretly Sam had no idea why he now fought and was subconsciously waiting to be defeated. Abandoning his desire of justice, Sam's new beliefs were that ideals were not meant on the battlefield as only victors could write history and ultimately decide what was right regardless of their actions. The war Armstrong promised would prove his new ideals which is another factor of why he decided to assist World Marshall. Raiden reminded him of his past self due to their similar ideals of justice which Sam held to originally. This caused friction between the two, Sam wished to point out the logical flaws of Raiden's pursuit of justice as was pointed out by him by Monsoon and Armstrong, in Denver he berated him for wanting to protect the weak but showing no concern over the cyborgs he killed who were also exploited by Desperado. Also, Raiden suffered the same loss as Sam (losing an arm) but persisted anyway, sparking a degree of shame within Sam himself who surrendered his own pursuit of justice because of the same loss. Raiden's unyielding mentality also led Sam to question his involvement in Operation Tecumseh despite two years preparation and finally questioned if joining Armstrong was the right thing to do. Through Raiden, he attempted to redeem himself by initiating a final duel, the victor deciding whose ideals were right all along, Sam being killed also confirmed his original pursuit of justice was correct all along and left Blade Wolf's fate in his own hands by granting him the choice to do what he wished with his sword that would play a vital part in Raiden's final duel. Much like his compatriots, Sam enjoyed combat as it was the only thing that drove him to fight, wishing to create or seek more conflict. He claimed to feel alive during his final fight with Raiden and only wished to fight him in his peak condition, the "Jack the Ripper" persona. Even though he loved combat, Sam wasn't without scruples in battle as he attempted to persuade Blade Wolf to think for himself despite having previously sent to kill him and did not kill everyone at Solis even though he was perfectly capable of. Although he wasn't born on the battlefield like Raiden was, it was certainly his home as he was able to deduce that Raiden was self-taught and held the purpose of his weapon back simply by dueling with him. Sam harboured a dark sense of humour towards cut related puns such as asking to Raiden if "he minded if Sam cut in" after previously stopping Raiden with his sword and asked Sundowner if he "cut himself shaving", having previously been cut to pieces. When Armstrong offered "a hand" to Sam, he responded by cutting off his and when Armstrong did the same later on, he only laughed as he reached out to lend a hand that was cut off. Prominently, Sam had a left scar on his eye that exceeded across his face. Aside from his right arm that was cut off and replaced, Sam had very few cybernetic enhancements when compared to the rest of the Winds of Destruction. His sword was a high-frequency Mamasaura that was passed along through the Rodrigues family, his father before him and it used to be ID-locked so only he could use it until after his death. Abilities Jetstream Sam is an extremely deadly swordsman and wears a cyborg-esque suit, which enhances all of his abilities to superhuman levels. He has surprisingly little cybernetic augmentation, the only exception being his right arm. But despite the fact that Sam’s suit is older than the cybernetics used by his opponents, he is able to take on various, powerful opponents, such as Raiden, Bladewolf, and even a Metal Gear RAY. Sam is extremely deadly with his Murasama blade, the sheath of which is equipped with a trigger that allows him to “fire” the sword out of it. He can use this to perform incredibly fast and powerful sword draws. Sam is also able to handle himself even without his sword, taking Raiden on hand-to-hand when he was disarmed using a very judo-esque style and even catching Raiden’s sword with his hands. Trivia *When Sam was first seen in the Spike Video Game Awards trailer of Metal Gear Rising, he had a slightly different appearance and was initially thought to be Vamp by fans. *Sam was voiced by Hiroaki Hirata in the Japanese version and Philip Anthony-Rodriguez in the international release. *The music that plays during the fight with Sam is “The Only Thing I Know For Real.” It is sung from Sam’s point of view, saying that he doesn’t know why he draws his sword except to kill, until he meets death. *Sam’s sword name is based on two different blades, the Muramasa blade made by the person/school of the same name and the Murasame sword, a fictional blade in Nanso Satomi Hakkendan. *As implied by the intros of both the main game and his titular DLC, Samuel is also hemophobic, as he didn't want to get blood all over him; the cause is possibly from the death of his father by the hands of a insider who was under orders of a drug cartel. 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